Digital Social Hour - Winning Slots Jackpot, Collabing with Vegas Matt & Favorite Casinos I Scott Richter DSH #402

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Scott Richter aka The Big Jackpot comes to the show to talk about winning slots jackpot, collabing with Vegas Matt & favorite casinos APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't want to go home with a big briefcase. Oh, they could have done cash? Yeah, they actually have. If you request cash, I mean, if you put cash into a machine and they request cash, they have to, you know. Wow. I don't know why you would want to take cash. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you probably can't even fly with that.

Yeah, so actually, I've been stopped at the airport before in the past. Nowadays, I try not to travel with cash just because there's a lot of bad people in the world. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. Ladies and gentlemen, we got the big jackpot here today. How's it going, Scott? Good. How you doing? Coming off a million dollar win, huh? Yeah, yeah. I'm in shock.

Happened last night? Yeah, yeah. Last night, about one o'clock in the morning. Oh my gosh. Were you alone? Well, yeah, I was just playing in the casino with my friend, but I had, I don't know, like 20, 30 fans behind me watching. No way. Yeah, so it was pretty hectic. That might go down as one of the most memorable experiences of your life yes uh definitely be hard to top it definitely for sure definitely one of the how quick did security pull up when you won that million so uh not so much security but the uh slide attendants were that i mean immediately there okay yeah because i feel like

if someone's walking by watching you win that they might try to follow you out of there oh yeah i don't i don't think that was that was really – I don't think that's right because it takes quite a while to get paid out. Oh, you didn't get the money right away? It took them about an hour, hour and a half to get it all done. It's not too bad. Yeah. And I decided to take a million dollars of it in a check.

I didn't want to go home with a big briefcase. Oh, they could have done cash? Yeah. They actually – if you request cash – I mean, if you put cash into a machine and they request cash yeah they actually have if you request cat i mean if you put cash into a machine and they request cash they have to you know wow i don't know why you would want to take cash yeah i mean i mean yeah you wouldn't you probably can't even fly with that yeah so actually i've been stopped at the airport before in the past nowadays i try not to travel with cash just because there's a lot of bad people in the world. So I usually just use casino markers,

and that way I don't have a high risk, to say. But yeah, so I have been stopped at airports before. So there's no law. You could travel with a billion dollars. Oh, really? Yeah, there's no law. I mean, there's no law about how much you travel. It's only if you leave the country or coming back in the country

that you have to declare over $10,000. Oh, got it. I always thought you just couldn't fly more with 10Gs. No, it's only if you go international or flying in or out that they do that. I mean, you can come back in the country with $20 billion. It would be suspicious. But, yeah, there's no law that says you can't. Interesting.

Okay. I want to talk about your gambling career. Like what age did you start doing slots? Yeah, so I actually started a long time ago when I was about 18 years old. Okay. I want to talk about your gambling career. Like what age did you start doing slots? Yeah. So I actually started a long time ago when I was about 18 years old. Wow. Before it was even legal, I guess, for me to gamble. So hopefully I won't get in trouble 35 years later. But yeah, I had a mentor who used to come to Vegas all the time and was really big into slots. So I started coming out when I was younger. I was kind of a couple of things. 30 years ago, nobody cared about IDs and checking stuff. It was a whole different kind of

world. Mafia was running the casinos back then. Yeah. Nobody. And so we used to come out to Vegas and I was a little larger, so I looked a little older for my age. So we'd gamble and just come out and, you know, $500,000 back then or something. Yeah. It's kind of a big trip. And then, but most of the machines do never even went over like $ dollars so it wasn't like you're hitting a lot of jackpots and uh funny story is um when i was 20 i hit my first jackpot and i was at caesar's palace in the middle of the night and uh i was like the guy came over you know he needs your id and your paperwork he goes i go oh my god i forgot it he goes oh no problem the slot supervisor can work with you just give us your information.

No, so you couldn't even claim the money? No, yeah, I did claim it. Oh, you did? They paid me. But like I said, this is in 1990. Just nobody cared about, you know, nobody was doing bad things in 1998. Yeah, wow. Caesars, if you're watching this, that never happened. So how many jackpots have you won?

So that's actually another fun fact. I'm getting, I'm very close to hitting 10 how many jackpots have you won uh so that's actually another fun fact i'm getting i'm very close to hitting 10 000 jackpots what in my life yeah holy crap i thought you would win like one in a lifetime no so on average because of the bet size um and the 1200 cap um on average i get about um i mean i get it you know two three hundred jackpots a night a night on A night? Some nights. Yeah. Like when I'm doing bigger spending and stuff.

Holy crap. On most nights, probably about 10 to 20 jackpots is pretty average when I'm in the casino. Yeah. And is there a strategy in terms of switching machines or are you on the same machine for those? So, yes, sometimes it's the same machine and I just keep playing it. And sometimes I switch machines, try different machines. Okay. So there's no like set machine that you favor.

You just play all of them. Yeah. So I have my favorite machines that I really enjoy playing. But then for the show, I try and play the most popular games and newer games that the fans are into. Got it. They won't watch. Yeah.

How have you seen the type of slot machines evolve over the 30 years you've been gambling? So a few things. They definitely have gone from the real machines where you would see the real spinning to electronic machines, which are video operated. And over the last couple of years, they've added the grand jackpots. And now the grand jackpots are getting larger.

They used to be like $10,000, $15,000. Then it was $50,000. Then it was $100,000. And now they have the million-dollar machines. And now they even have a $10 million machine. What? It's called Megabucks. And it's all the casinos combined are in the machine.

So it's like as people play it, like every casino may have two or three of them. And as people play throughout all the casinos, it's going into this $10 million pot. Wow. But I think on that machine, if you do win it, it pays you over like 20 years. Oh, okay. I think there's a little bit different payout. So the million dollars I won was immediate payout, no meeting. That's nuts.

What's the most someone's ever won off a slot jackpot? So I honestly do not know, but I do think that somebody has won $10 million. Damn. But like I said, I don't know. I mean, since the million-dollar Dragon Links came out and started, I know there's probably been you know 50 to 75 you know million dollar plus winners wow between it was reset it starts at 1 million so i think from between a million and like uh you know like about 1.5

million that's insane has is the u.s the biggest country for slots uh no well i don't know now after stuff but macau used to be the biggest. Macau? Macau outside of Hong Kong. Wow. I never even heard of that. Oh, really? Yeah, it's huge.

So a lot of the casinos that are here, like Wynn, Venetian, they have locations there. And it's weird because it's like if you think the casinos here are big, over there they're about twice as big. It's like the same thing, but it's just, but they don't have as many slot machines there. It's mostly a lot of Baccarat dice games. Yeah. And, you know, more Chinese cultural stuff. Now, why'd you go all in on slots?

Because when you look up the odds, it's like one of the worst, right? Yeah. So for me, slots were always mindless entertainment.

It was just something fun for me to do, kind of just a getaway. Some of my biggest ideas in business came from slots. You know, so I would just kind of play them and you know you just like i said it's mindless entertainment you don't have to do

any effort there's no there's no thought process of a button um but i i do table games i i have uh i've had uh some huge wins on table games and stuff but you know table games you have to make a decision you know i mean there's a lot more at play than a slot machine yeah it's more strategy right with table games? Yeah. Yeah. Would you say you're up or down overall in your gambling career? Oh, yeah.

I mean, for my 30 years plus of gambling, I'm definitely down. Oh, you are? I mean, if you ever meet a gambler who tells you he's ahead, he's a liar. At least you're honest about it. Yeah, I mean, there's nobody. I mean, this year I am 100% ahead. Okay. And this year, and this jackpot hit, as long as I don't screw it up in the next few weeks,

definitely should definitely, this is probably made up for a couple of years, you know, but yeah, I mean, there's especially the level of gambling that we're doing or that I say that I'm doing on my channel. It's definitely a much higher,

you know, amount being bet. So the jackpots happen very frequently. Yeah. But you're able to monetize and other aspects to offset some of your losses, which is cool. Yeah. Yeah. Between the YouTube revenue, Facebook revenue, which is really good. Yeah. It's actually interesting because I started on YouTube, but my Facebook revenue is about three, four times what YouTube pays me. Damn. And then the endorsement deals are just insane.

Yeah. And then one thing I also started about five years ago, I was the first slot influencer in the area to start my own slot app. So I have my own app, which has done really well for me over the years. Oh, so you could literally play slots on an app

on your phone right now? Yeah. So it's a free play app with in-app purchases. Oh, cool. Yeah, so you're not catching out money or anything. Oh, it's just like

digital currencies and stuff you can win? Yeah, just like in-app purchases for coins and bonuses and stuff. Yeah. How do the brand deals work? That's a curious you can win? Yeah, just like in-app purchases for coins and bonuses. Yeah. How do the brand deals work? That's a curious thing to me. Yeah.

So the brand deals are huge. So we actually have a lot of like slot apps, other slot apps besides my own. But yeah, I mean, the brand deals are huge. I mean, some of them are. Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life. Click the application link below. And here's the episode, guys.

You know, $25,000, $50,000 a month. It's crazy money for us. You're killing it, bro. Yeah, no, it's been really good. A lot of Slack channels have started because they wanted... I mean, the thing, when I started, there wasn't the brand deals and there wasn't a lot of money in this. I just did it, you know, got into it. I had an ex-girlfriend who got me into it, but I, you know, I just kind of continued on with it. It's just something to do.

It wasn't anything, you know, it's kind of like, eh, film a little clip, put it on YouTube. Yeah. I never thought, you know, like. It would turn into this. Yeah. This wasn't my focus at the time. Yeah. Where I had been in business and stuff.

I feel like you and Vegas Matter are like the face of this slots movement right now. Yeah, yeah. And he's done tremendous. I mean, he's just exploded this last six months. Crazy. When I first time on the show, like almost a year ago, like he was just starting. Yeah, yeah, no. I talked to him when he had first started.

And it's actually funny. We did a competition video. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did a $5,000 challenge video. Who won? Well, obviously I did them. The OG of slots here. So it was fun.

Yeah, we did a $5,000 video. He actually, I played Huff and Puff. He played video poker. He lost it all in video poker. I don't even, it was whoever would have the most money after a half hour. So I don't even know if he made it the full half hour. But yeah, so we had a challenge. And then I think I beat him on two out of three challenges

he's going to have to do three out of five then or something but we always have a good time we had a funny video like a month or two ago I was the butler in his video and what's funny about it is a lady in the casino the other day was like oh my god you were

she goes I recognize you I know you and I'm like I don't know you, you were – she goes, I recognize you. I know you. And I'm like, I don't know you. She goes, no, you're the butler. I was like, oh, yeah. That's what she remembered you for? I mean, you probably get recognized at every casino you walk into at this point. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's definitely – we're becoming more and more recognized.

Yeah. I mean, and outside of casinos. I mean, I was in Germany, Mexico. Oh, even in other countries? It's crazy because you have to think. I mean, I'm getting casinos, I mean, I was in Germany, Mexico. I mean. Oh, even in other countries? It's crazy because you have to think, I mean, I'm getting between 10 and 20 million views a month. Damn. On the platforms and.

And that's long form too, which is. Yeah. Yeah. My average watch time on long form is almost 22 minutes. Holy. That's the highest retention I've ever. That's like Mr. Beast numbers. Yeah.

No, it's, it's crazy retention. So the sweet spot for YouTube is you want like about a 35, 40-minute video. Yeah. And you usually get about 50% watch time. Wow. So do you have an older demo then? Because people my age can't watch that long. Yeah.

The younger crowd is not into slots. And that's the biggest problem. And that's why the casinos and the slot manufacturers are really big about this because they need to get these new viewers and stuff. Right. But, yeah, my average person is about 70, 75% male audience, um, 35 to 55 year old. Damn. That is crazy.

And then my top countries after USA is Australia, Canada, and UK. Wow. So you are worldwide. Oh yeah. Yeah. No, the, the pokies in Australia are huge. And I mean, gambling everywhere is big.

I mean, yeah. Yeah. I guess slots is one of those things where it's kind of like everywhere in all the major countries. Yeah. People just love them. So where do you plan on taking this thing, man? I don't know. There's so many things

and places to try and go with it. I think for me, it's just to keep growing the channels. What's getting a little harder about everything now is because there's so many more platforms. So it's, uh, obviously like TikTok,

you know, came along, Instagram, you have X, you have, uh, now Clapper. So,

you know, it's Clapper. Clapper is like a TikTok knockoff. So TikTok got really strict about, uh, gambling and slots. Oh, you can't even live stream on TikTok?

Yeah, no. If the, if you go live on TikTok with slots, they immediately ban you. Wow. And they are are do allow the content because the like some of the biggest advertisers uh and the highest cpms are being

paid by all these slot companies like it's some of the top slot companies are doing four billion dollars a year on their slot apps it's just crazy money yeah holy crap that's all profit because it's there's no really cost well i mean yeah they have the development cost of their app well other than that but that's like a one-time oh yeah no and that's why they're there's no really cost. Well, I mean, yeah, they have the development cost of their apps. Well, other than that, but that's like a one-time. Oh, yeah, no, and that's why they're paying so much. I mean, I have other friends too getting $5,000, $10,000 a video. Damn. I mean, it's just insane money.

There's a lot of money in this space. And even the comps from the resorts are probably insane too. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, I always get full room food and beverage. They'll pay for your flights, airfare. Wow. You always get anywhere $5,000 to $10,000 a day in free play. And you get tickets to all the events, like UFC, Allegiant Stadium.

Yeah, I went to the Vegas Knights won the Stanley Cup. I was here going to the Super Bowl. They got me tickets for that. Dude, it was nuts. I went to U2. Oh, they comp the Spear, too? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Wow. Oh, yeah, because Venetian owns the Spear or something? Yeah. So pretty much any show or any eventetian owns the Spear or something? Yeah. So pretty much any show or any event, I've never had a problem getting into it. I've had UFC great tickets. Face value says $5,000. I don't know whether they're going to pay or not. No, Vegas Matt took me to the ice hockey game, and it was front row.

I'm like, this is your life, man? Every restaurant he goes into comped. Oh, yeah. Or there's like $1,000 of food. Well, you know, it's all comped, but at the end of the day, we may have spent, you know, I may have gave $100,000

to get those two front row tickets. That's true. It's funny how the psychology of it works. Yeah. They make you feel amazing, but you're actually, if you do the math,

you're most likely overspending on what they're comping you. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'd probably be better off not gambling. I just pay my own way everywhere. I could say,

but most casinos, you figure you should get about 10% in free play. So if you go to a casino not gambling. I just pay my own way everywhere. I could say it. But most casinos, you figure, you should get about 10% in free play. So if you go to a casino and you lost $100,000, you should get about $10,000 in free play on your next trip. And then you should have about 10% to 15% in comps. Interesting. So if you go to the spa and you go everywhere, on a $100,000 loss or playthrough in a casino,

figure 10% to 15,000 free play, 10% to 15 play through in a casino. Yeah. You know, figure 10 to 15,000 free play 10 to 15,000 in comps. I didn't know they did that on losses. I'm not playing at a high enough level for them to even offer that. I bet. Yeah. Well, you probably get like free buffets for you. Yeah.

Free stuff like that. Have you checked out found blue yet? Yeah. So I actually went down there yesterday. Nice. Did you gamble? I did not gamble there. Okay.

What'd you think of it? You know, I honestly thought I did like the high ceilings. I don't smoke. I mean, I don't care that people do smoke, but I don't smoke. So having the high ceilings was nice. So I didn't have to, you know, the air was much better than the casinos that have low ceilings. But yeah, new smell.

It looked nice. But I was very unimpressed. Really? Yeah. I was very, very disappointed. I mean, for 16 years of building it or 12 years or whatever. And I felt it kind of seemed outdated. I mean, kind of, you know, a lot of stuff still isn't open there.

But I felt the slot machine selection wasn't the best for being all brand new machines. I thought the high limit room looked like a tube that you kind of walk into. Wow. They don't have FastPay on the floor, which for a brand new casino makes no sense. What's up? So what fast pay is, especially at the levels that we're betting, and jackpots, which the government needs to change at some point, is $1,200 or more as a jackpot. So when I'm betting $250 a spin, if I win six times my bet, it's like a person betting

a dollar and winning $6. It's a jackpot. So you have to wait for the slot attendant to come over and clear the machine. Oh, that seems annoying. Five, six, seven years ago, they came out with FastPay. So a lot of the high-limit rooms have it. But now most of the casino floors are adding that as well.

And that's why I can hit so many jackpots. Because if I waited all night long for slot attendants, I mean, every time you hit a jackpot, if it took 10 minutes. It seems outdated. Yeah. Well, there's two things outdated. One is casino technology needs to be updated. And then the government, I know they were trying to pass at the end of Trump's time in office, they were trying to get it to $5,000. But if you think about it, the $1,200 has been around since, you know, the 1970 or 80s. Yeah. Inflation, man. I mean, yeah. Or even if you didn't want to do inflation, it should

be based on the amount of your bet. I mean, because there's machines and I did for my birthday two years ago, I lost a quarter million dollars. I did 50 spins at 5,000 a spin. So even nothing on, I mean, just, you know, I was betting 5,000, you know, a lot of times too on machines, if you, you can win less than your bet size. So even on a $5,000 spin, I win 1500 bucks as a jackpot. Wow. That doesn't make sense. Yeah. So they, and yeah, I mean, there's thousand dollar machines I've done a lot of spins on. So they definitely need to change the laws. I mean, definitely like 5,000 or something would make a lot of sense, but I think it needs to be more based on the amount of the bet.

So if the machines, if you're betting 1,000, it should be like 50 times that bet or something like that. Got it, like a multiple. Just something realistic, because like I said, there's machines now that you can bet 5,000 a spin, so no matter anything you get, it's going to be a jackpot. How are you stomaching some of these big losses,

man? Has it got you emotionally? It did back in the day, but I'm pretty big about preaching, especially to my audience. I'm always like, don't play with what you don't have. When I go to the casino, I expect to lose. I know I'm going to lose 8 out of 10 times. I mean, it's

just part of it. Sometimes I'll get a little down on myself and I feel disappointed when I lose, but you know, like they said, if I'm doing something like really crazy or big, I usually have it more of a planned event where it's like, you know,

I'm going to be doing, you know, quarter million dollars, $5,000. This is a big event. Like people want to tune in and watch it and stuff. So I'm, I'm a little bit more geared up for it,

but my, you know, my biggest thing was, like I said, just, I always wanted to beat my biggest jackpot of $100,000 and I never expected. Got a million, man. Yeah. That must be a short list of people

that have pulled it off. Yeah. I mean, probably less than a couple of hundred. Wow. That's nuts. There should be a Wikipedia page for that. Yeah, definitely. People that have done that. I'm working on, in a couple of months, doing a big event, Guinness Book of World Record, a certified event for the largest slot play ever. Oh, yeah? How much would you need to bet? Well, yeah, so now everything's kind of changed.

So originally it was going to be like a million dollar. I was actually going to go for the million dollar Dragon Link. Oh, okay. Actually, so the biggest I've ever done it at once was $300,000. On the $5,000 spins, the Dragon Link machines go up to $2,500 a spin. So the plan was to do a million dollars live. Wow. A million-dollar slot play live and have them certify it as the biggest.

That's sick. What's the record right now? There's no record. Oh, so you would set the whole category. Yeah. But I figured, I mean, I'm not going to go certify it for $200,000. I want it to be, I mean, the whole idea was also to try and get my biggest jackpot of my life at the same time. So now everything's kind of like changed up, what I'm trying to do.

Two birds with one stone. When I was a kid, I always wanted to get in that book, man. Oh, yeah. I got to figure out like if there's an angle with podcasting or something. Maybe the largest podcast out there. Yeah, that'd be cool. I mean, that was every kid's dream growing up. Oh, yeah, no.

Yeah, honestly, I think – and that's kind of like the same thing with the nowadays i don't even know if most of the young people under 15 even know what the guinness book of world records is i don't hear kids talking about it at all they talk about tiktok yeah yeah it's all about tiktok that's why i told my it was funny i told my kids i said i go uh is that pretty crazy i have a hundred thousand followers on tiktok and i haven't done one dance that was definitely a phase it was a cringy phase yeah for years i never was about that phase so is there any skills in slot in slots at all so there is advantage slot players so some machines do have some advantages back in the day people used to say um if like play the machines on the aisle or you know busy walkways or different like those pay better but um most of that's not nonsense um but there

are advantage slot games where like if you get so many uh like so many green coins or yellow coins or so many like points it has to hit by like a hundred or something so there are some games like that where there is some advantage skill level i was actually playing a game last night um like the jackpot or the the bonus had a hit by $8,000. And basically every spin I was doing at $200, it went up by $4. So I was kind of bored and probably a stupid move, but I was like, you know what? It's $800 away. So I basically knew for $20,000 a playthrough, I had to hit it. So it cost me about $14,000 to $8,000. God, you just had to hit it so it cost me about fourteen thousand eight thousand god uh you just wanted to win it yeah i was like you know i'll clip that video like

10 minutes before i'll be like look i put two thousand in i just got eight thousand my biggest win ever on this game wow in the high limit rooms is the only difference the money you're betting is there any other differences um i mean usually the level of service is hopefully better um by the casinos also uh in the high limit rooms they usually have like premium drinks okay are you drinking while you're playing you know sometimes i do i'm not um i drink you know back home because i have restaurants and bars and stuff so sometimes like vegas for me is like i need a break from drinking yeah and i also try and like you know i mean obviously like they say you know i mean you know the more you drink probably the the worst decisions you make yeah the more you lose yeah i mean there's a reason why the drinks are free in vegas and nowhere else yeah do you have

any good luck charms do you believe in any of that pre-game stuff um you know not not really um i give out to fans all the time i have my good luck chips and they're always winning with them and okay i'm doing well they they come up to me'll look, it's still in my pocket or I hit this jackpot. They'll send me a picture and stuff, which is great. But yeah, I'm not very superstitious. I don't like to walk on cracks,

you know, skip over the cracks and walking down the street. That's a classic one. Yeah. But yeah, no, everything else I'm kind of like, I mean,

like I said, the slots are just pure luck. I mean, there's, like I said, if you ever meet a slot player and he tells you he's ahead, unless he hit that million dollars and bets really low,

they're lying. You see it more in poker, I think, with the good luck charms. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because poker is more, I guess there's a lot of luck in it, but it's more skill, too. Well, poker is, I mean, it's your attitude. I mean, you're, you know, your demeanor and what somebody's trying to read and bluffing.

Absolutely. Yeah, and stuff. Plus, I've done poker a little bit. A lot of my fans have asked me to do poker. I guess I've done some, but I don't have the patience to sit there. It's too slow. Like I said, and you have to think. It is work, and that's why slots have just been mindless entertainment. I just come up with some of my biggest business ideas and stuff.

Yeah, let's talk business, actually, because I've never seen you dive into your business stuff. What are you doing there? So back in the early days, I was the, well, originally I started in restaurants. I started Great Scott's Eatery, a chain of restaurants in Colorado, 24 day family restaurants. And then I got in this, I opened my first bar when I, so I started that when I was 20. I opened my first bar when I turned 21. So I was in the hospitality business for the first 10 years of my life. And also I did vending machines.

Oh, yeah? When I was 16 years old, or 15 years old, my mom got me two vending machines. So I started Little Candy Machines. And then I got into video games and pinball machines and pool tables, jukeboxes. So when I started my restaurant, by the time I was 20, I think I had about three, 400 video games. I had about 10,000 gumball machines. And I've always just been an entrepreneur worker trying to make money and do stuff. Never was really big about school and going to college or school.

Oh, so you never went? No. So during my high school career, I wasn't doing good in school. So I took the restaurant arts program. So that's where I learned a lot with the restaurants and cooking. That's cool. Now to make it in the restaurant industry, you hear the margins are thin and not a lot of people make it. What do you think you did differently to make it? Uh, yeah, I mean, I, I would put in 18, 20 hours a day. Uh, my first restaurants, you know, look like makeshift, you know, he would go in there,

you know, or something. Uh, I just, every dollar I made, I just kept reinvesting in my businesses and, you know, fixing them up, making them look nicer. And, um, I, I, like I said I made, I just kept reinvesting in my businesses and fixing them up, making them look nicer. And like I said too, I think it was just the time. It was easy to do things 30 years ago. I mean it's hard. I mean I was buying – I got big into real estate. I have almost – actually I have over 200 properties now. It was like my original restaurants I was buying for 135,000 bank repos back then with 10% down.

So, I mean, you could open up a business for a restaurant for $30,000, $40,000. Wow. I mean, my last remodel I did was almost a million dollars on a restaurant. So, it's crazy. Times have changed. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You could just do so much more back then. Yeah.

Like the loans were 10% down. Now, it's 25%, 30%. And the interest is crazy. Yeah. Interest was kind of high back then, too. Oh, it was? Yeah. 25%, 30%. And the interest is crazy. Yeah. Interest was kind of high back then, too. Oh, it was? Yeah. I think it was, I mean, probably where it was now.

Yeah. But we were coming off the first, you know, big recession back then in, like, the early 1990s and stuff. But, yeah, so I had the restaurant business, vending machines. And then I stumbled in when I was about 30 into the internet. Okay. Just kind of was looking for stuff. Used to watch CNBC and got into it. And I started with a company online selling pagers.

And then that moved into like Ginsu knives. And then I discovered diet pills. And I came out with like Inferno, melt your fat away and second Inferno. And then started, I was like, you know what? I'm spending all this money. I'm collecting all this data. Started building an email list.

And then I became known as the spam king. that was just spam people that's what they said i thought it was often email marketing and i was funny on the daily show they did a clip on me it's hilarious cliff is uh i was like uh high high volume email deployer um but it was pre-canned spam this is like 2001 to um that's where they made that law because of you that was a big part of it actually so funny so funny story so vegas matt was actually working for my friend who i was working with oh yeah oh you knew him for a while yeah he was in new york working with him in 2000 uh like you know two three so we actually all got sued by the new york ag and microsoft at the same time not matt but the guy he was working for, my friend.

So we all got sued. Microsoft sued me for $50 million. For what? For emailing people? Yeah, so they didn't really have any laws back then. It was kind of like the Wild West. So you weren't breaking any laws. You weren't breaking any criminal laws, but you were breaking – people would say, well –

and you have to remember, like, you were paying by the minute to use AOL and dial up. Oh, so people were getting charged when you emailed them. Yeah, they'd open their email and they were on the phone for 12 seconds. I could see why they would be upset. Yeah, so it was a whole different day back before spam filters. It was just crazy, the money. I went from working my ass off in restaurants and trying to make a living to all of a sudden I'm making $50,000 a day. Damn, off emails?

Oh, it was nuts, the money. Holy crap. Yeah, it was crazy. What were you selling? Just anything you could imagine. Vista Print was a big one back then for business cards online. Wow, I used to use that for my business cards. Yeah, but it was casinos, diet products.

I had little mini microphones. I had cell phone stickers that went on the back of your cell phone. Damn, so you tried everything. That was the best one. Yeah. Oh, the big one was Iraqi playing cards. Iraqi playing cards. Yeah.

That was, I don't know if you ever, well, back when we invaded Iraq, they had like the top 50 most wanted people in Iraq. Oh no, I never saw that. That was huge. But yeah, that was crazy. Like I went, I think by 2007 or eight, I was in the Forbes 500 fastest growing business.

I did like $108 million that year. What? Oh, it was insane. All the emails? I got sued by MySpace. I got sued. I paid over $20 million in fines. Oh, my gosh.

But you were making so much, you didn't even care. Yeah, I just hoped it was the cost of doing business. It was funny when Microsoft, and I grew up, I always played hockey and stuff. So when I got sued by Microsoft and New York AG, all the reporters called me, and they wanted to meet and interviews and stuff. So when I got sued by Microsoft and New York AG, all the reporters called me and they wanted to meet and interviews and stuff. And I was like, yeah. And they were like, yeah, I'll be at the hockey rink. You can come.

You're going to go play hockey? You just got sued for $20 million. I was like, yeah. What am I going to do, stop my life? I'm going to keep making money. So you're good at separating the emotional side of business. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not married to any of my businesses.

When I've sold them and exited them, I'm really big in the domain space. I have killer domain names. Oh, yeah? Which ones? Well, I just sold Affiliate.com. Wow, that's a good one. That was a good one.

So I just sold that one. And I also just sold Text.com. Text? T-E-X-T.com. Oh, wow. You had Text.com, bro? But I still have Airline.com. I have a lot of names.

I just sold Pete.com. Dude, you have some good names. But I have Elmo.com, Dora.com, bro. But I still have like airline.com. I have a lot of names. I just sold Pete.com. Dude, you have some good names. But I have like Elmo.com, Dora.com. So a lot of your success is just being there early. Yeah, and they're in the space. It's like I tell people, in the online advertising and online business and affiliate space business, you have to reinvent yourself every two years. Like nothing lasts forever.

Like it just keeps changing. But yeah, one of my names right now is broncos.com. I've had for like 12 years. That's a good one. The Denver Broncos didn't approach you yet? I've tried to sell it to them a few times. I think with the new ownership, maybe they would change. You got a message paid, Manning.

I've been offered free season tickets for live. I've been offered different things. That's probably not worth the domain. Yeah, the Rockies, well, the Rockies, Colorado Rockies, the Rockies paid a million and a half to get rockies.com. Wow. And I was actually, I was offering it to them for like a half a million. I was like, yeah.

It's pretty reasonable. They made that in a – It should be a million-dollar domain name. Yeah. People don't – and so I actually – I have like their schedule on it. You always have to make sure with names there's no copyright infringement and stuff. So I actually have their links to their – through Fanatics, their store and everything. So I make sure I follow the rules.

So you have like an affiliate link? Yeah, but it was great. Like when they won the Super Bowl, they made like 10 grand that month. Damn, that's not bad. Yeah, every holiday season it does well before the season starts. When Wilson joined the team, his jersey sales.

But yeah, I have just a ton of domains. I have about 80,000 domain names. Holy shit. I think now I'm a little bit lower. How did you buy that many? Just kept buying and I had a lot of typos back in the day. Holy. One point. I think now I'm a little bit lower, but how did you buy that many? Just kept buying. And I had a lot of like typos back in the day. That was really big.

The problem now is with like smart browsers. You don't have, you don't get that kind of traffic. So the example back, you know, 15 years ago, if you had, you know,

Facebook with one Oh yeah. Or some, or Google with one Oh, you know, stuff like that would get just massive. Oh, I used to always fall for those. With people just mistype them.

Yeah. Or like I had Elmo.com door.com. So for the, you know, everybody's looking for Elmo gift store. Yes. You know, that's funny.

But now they, they rerouted all those to the main one. Yeah. A lot of it. Like if you typed in Elmo.com, it'd probably take you to Sesame street.com. Yeah. That's cool to see you diversify your,

your money into different assets, like real estate domains and businesses. Yeah. Well, like I tell people, especially, I mean, people don't understand the power of these domains. Like I have necklace.com. I mean, just tons of like, if you went to New York, you know, and you wanted to have the number one jewelry or necklace store on, you know, Madison or the Fifth Avenue or whatever the, you know, I mean, how many millions and millions of dollars would

it cost you? You know, and I'm like, you know, Warren Buffett, he owns all these jewelry stores. He could buy necklace.com, have the number one necklace site online, and doesn't have to spend $20 million to be on Park Avenue. That's true. A good domain automatically builds trust. Yes, and that's why I try to explain to people. And I've done a lot of deals where I lease out my names to people for businesses, like skinny.com I leased out.

Because like I said, it's instant trust. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, like plunge.com, theyased out um because like i said it's instant trust yeah that's cool yeah like uh plunge.com they're doing 100 million a year and that's a great domain so you just automatically trust like they sell cold plunges oh yeah no when you have the brand it makes it easy and then the big thing so the biggest thing for me ever where i was doing 100 million plus a year was ringtones which is crazy because ringtones don't even exist today or they're free today i should say yeah yeah i don't even exist today. Or they're free today, I should say. Yeah. Yeah. I don't even use them anymore. Yeah.

Nobody does. Or they're free. Like I said, you just take a clip. But back then we were selling you a, you know, $9.99 a month ringtone and, you know, get the, get your daily joke of the day, get a tarot card reading of the day for an extra $2.99 a month. Yeah. Ringtones.

That's how Soulja Boy blew up back in the day. The rapper. Oh yeah. Yeah. He just put his ringtone on everyone's phone. No one wanted it there. Yeah, no, so the ringtones have been huge. That was my really big one where my revenue exceeded $100 million a year. Like I said, it was crazy. So are you still seeking insane revenue opportunities, or are you just chilling with the slot stuff at this point?

No, I'm always looking for stuff to do. You know, it's kind of hard once you've made it and been successful because, you know, it's like I always tell people I have 100 ideas a day that can make, you know, $100 a day. But I can't implement 100 ideas and I can't run it. So it's kind of hard. Like I want to have stuff that can make, you know, I'm looking for that always for the thing that's going to make millions of dollars a month or, you know, and be a big deal because I know the effort and the time you have to put in and stuff. And it's depressing at times. I mean, imagine if you have 80, 100 employees, you're doing $110 million this year. And now you have 15 employees and you're doing 30 million a year. Yeah, it's a big size. Yeah. So it's kind of like, I mean, obviously it's different, you know, real estate rental. And yeah, I mean, you know, the income just keeps coming in and I have no debt. So it's, I mean, it's, it's great.

Also the property tax, it's, you know, a home run. And, but yeah, it's like, I'm always looking for something fun to do. And this, like the gambling, it is kind of tough because sometimes it does wear on you and the travel. I mean, I'm on the road, you know, two and a half, three weeks of the month going to casinos all over. I just got back from Europe. We're going to, two and a half, three weeks of the month going to casinos all over. I just got back from Europe. We're going to, I've been in Vegas three times in the last month.

Yeah, so you got no time to work. Yeah, I came like last week I was here. I came out of Mississippi at a casino that I had to fly to Dallas to get to. And there's no direct flight. Then I had to drive an hour and a half to an Indian reservation in the middle of nowhere. And then I took a three-hour car ride from there to Alabama to get a direct flight to Vegas. It's kind of like a touring group. Yeah. And, but I do try and do all these meeting greets and get out to see my fans because, you know, just like I said, just like a touring group, they want to meet you. They want

to see you. And they love to just come watch me gamble. It's, it's, you know, I'm gonna have to make it out and see what it's all about, man. Yeah, no, it's fine. You know, what I try and do is put you in the machine or like, so it you get that real life experience and most people either say they love this i save them a ton of money because they can just watch me they can just watch me gamble and they don't have to go to the casino and lose all their money and then you get those other people who are like i watched you you just won i ran to the casino i lost you know seven hundred dollars i can't pay my rent can you say oh gosh i get that a lot. And I'm like, I just, I always wonder, I'm like, yeah, some of these stories are very depressing and they put a lot of effort into them or college students who lost all their

money. And I think that's going to be the next really, really big thing that the government, this is going to be interesting with all this online gambling now. And so you have the sports betting, you know, in a lot of like 20 plus states now. But, you know, some of the states have online casino gambling too on the slots on their apps. But this is becoming a really big,

this could be the next big thing. This is gonna be a hurdle because at least casinos, you had some control, you have to go there. But this sports betting, these, you know,

young college kids are getting wiped out. I mean, they're, I mean, this is gonna become a big problem in the future. They're probably gonna have to step in at some point, right? I don't know how,

yeah, I mean, I don't know how you step in because obviously gambling's there. Yeah. You know, but when you have right? I don't know how you, yeah. I mean, I don't know how you step in because obviously gambling's there, you know, but when you have something on your hand, it's, yeah. I mean,

these, these kids are spending their whole entire savings, you know, betting 20 games a day, 50, you know, well, I think,

I think in the case of sports betting, if you're selling sports picks, you should verify your own results somehow, like have some sort of system where it could be verified. Cause people say obnoxious claims. Oh yeah. 150 wins, two losses.

Yeah. That should be able to be verified. Yeah. Yeah. No, definitely stuff like that. But I'm just saying even the people who aren't buying verified, I'm just saying when you put something in the hands of somebody that they

can just lose all their money, you know, it's, and I think it took so long to even get to this point where the states would allow it because, you know, they had the biggest criminal racket with, you know, lottery tickets. Yeah.

That was scary. Yeah. I mean, 50% hold. You can't win. But yeah, no, I know that's like becoming, but it is depressing when people are like, it's like, you know, I was right back. How about go get a second job? Go get a third job. Oh, you know, I tried.

Nobody's hiring. I'm like, I don't know. It's plenty of places. If you want to work and you need. Yeah. I'm not a fan of the victim mentality. Like you, you go on a gamble just because you watch someone that's still your decision. Yeah.

That's what I tell. Yeah. That's like, you're a grown adult. If you're 21 plus, you know, the casino, you made your decision. Not me. I don't, I don't like when people blame others. I mean, you're an adult, man. No, especially like they said, these, these hardship stories.

And I always wonder, I always, then I kind of think I'm like, you know, sometimes I'll, I'll be like, oh yeah, you only needed $8,000. You sure you don't want 20? Well, you know, if you want to give me the 20, that's cool. I'm just like, I'm like, how many people do they write to a day that actually are like, you know what, man, God, I just read your story. I'm sending you, here's 5,000 or here's 100. No one's sending money to you.

Yeah, but they keep writing. I get them too. I'm like, guys in India or something just messaging me for money. Yeah, those ones, yeah, those are scammers. But I'm saying like the people in America, like, or your fans, I watch you every day.

They know everything about me. And they're like, like, how many people do you write? Like, do they go home and tell their wife? Like, yeah,

you know what? Oh, you know, that's a great opportunity for you. I spoke to their eyes. I asked him for the 7,000 we need. Yeah. And I told him about the new baby.

And that's a weird, like, there's a still, he hasn't got back to me. Like, I'm like, what are you? People probably have a lot of parasocial relationships with you that you don't even know about yeah no you do have your your best fans and it's great having the fans but yeah no it's

it is crazy how like some because our watch time is so high and and in the beginning i always forgot about that or i wasn't used like i i was more of an analytics person and i wasn't really like i'm not mr outgoing personality yeah which i you'm, I'm the operation guy. Like I'm going to get this stuff done and we're going to make a lot of money. I was never, I was never the face of it. Yeah. Scott's been fun, man. Anything you want to close off with our promote?

No, I just, uh, you know, definitely check me out. If, uh, you haven't watched me, my channel is the big jackpot. Um, I go by Raja and I'm on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, X, Threads, Clapper. We got to get you a deal on Kick or Rumble. Oh, so actually I am on Rumble. Oh, nice. Yes, I am on Rumble. And actually, another funny story.

I just need to mention it real quick. My friend was the founder and the largest shareholder of Rumble. Damn. Yeah, so he started it. Sick. Small world. Yeah, small world. And I am working with Steak.com to have a deal on Kick also. Nice. All right, man he started it. Sick. Small world. Yeah, small world. And I am working with stake.com to have a dual on kick also.

Nice. All right, man. Great chatting. Thanks for watching, guys. Kept it real with the slots. I love that. See you next time.